Author Archives: Emily

Lazy Sunday

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We actually had a very busy Sunday but the title references something later in the post! Really, we had the best weekend ever. I know I say that every time Adam and I have a weekend together, but this one was my new favorite! We walked around the Lower East Side eating all of the things, took a long walk through Williamsburg/across the bridge, and made fancy sandwiches which we ate in bed while laughing hysterically at the latest SNL.

Highlights include…

Pumpkin things! Pumpkin pie Perfect bar with a Vietnamese iced latte.

Local pumpkin ales, which were good but not our favorites.

Caramel pumpkin yogurt with cashew butter and granola.

Love these seaweed chips!

I know this looks like a depression snack but these bbq kettle chips with melted Manchego were actually my favorite thing I ate all weekend.

Chip in Astoria has new seasonal fall lattes! We had dulce de leche and black and white cookie!

Plus a monster chip cookie.

We had the best parfait at Cha An. Tea jelly, fruit, mochi, brown sugar syrup, and green tea ice cream.

Dirt-pudding style bingsu from Lazy Sundaes!

10/10 meal at Thai Diner. Perhaps my new favorite spot? We shared Thai iced tea, milo hot chocolate with pandan marshmallows, and a spicy tamarind mezcal margarita.

Plus chicken phat see eiw (which was perfectly packed with basil and Chinese brocoli).

And spicy chicken and banana blossom salad.

Pumpkin Spice And Everything Nice

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Highlights from this week include…

Phin-brewed Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee with sweetened condensed milk is obviously my new favorite thing of all time.

Pumpkin Noosa with papaya and cocoa granola. Was pleasantly surprised by how well these three flavors paired together.

Yummy candies my parents sent us from back home – tamarind balls and guava hard candies.

Be sure to grab yourself a bag of these cinnamon pretzels the next time you’re at a 7-11.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale is one of our original pumpkin favorites.

And this limited release Stone double IPA was pretty great too.

Cheese plates for dinner! Bartlett pear / homemade spiced candied walnuts / maple-smoked cheddar / papaya / durian chocolate and milk chocolate / Manchego / garlic naan crackers from Trader Joe’s.

Egg casserole – with broccoli, green onion, shallot, TJ’s turkey summer sausage, and maple-smoked cheddar – plus beer cheese kettle chips. Inspired by this recipe.

Whole-wheat matzoh brei with roasted brussel sprouts.

A great take on sheet-pan fried rice (loosely based on this method) with cauliflower rice (seasoned with soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and gojuchang), peas, green onions, and sausage.

Howling Gourds

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Adam and I both worked this weekend, so we didn’t have a lot of fun, but we did have some good snacks. Highlights included…

Trader Joe’s pumpkin spice protein smoothie. Mild flavor, good spice, and pretty filling.

Whole-wheat matzoh with melted cheddar. I haven’t fully sold Adam on matzoh brei yet but he’s onboard with the bread as a vehicle for cheese.

Howling Gourds is officially our new favorite pumpkin ale! It’s fairly hoppy and cinnamon-forward but most importantly it is 7% ABV which is higher than most other pumpkin beers we’ve tried in the past.

Clean-out-the-pantry pasta that was surprisingly good. Whole-wheat rotini with steamed broccoli, sautéed radish, Trader Joe’s vegan chorizo, and marinara sauce, topped with Manchego.

See Food Diet

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Highlights from this week include…

The salted caramel Perfect bar is perfect.

Black and white cookie. I’ve decided I have not been eating nearly enough bagels or black and white cookies.

If you haven’t tried the hot honey chicken sandwich from Melt Shop yet get yourself there immediately. It has hot honey and jalopeno pimento cheese!

We went with a seafood theme for dinners this week and each night was better than the last! Seared scallops with crispy garlic smashed potatoes and sauteed bok choy and radish greens.

Roasted cabbage with sliced radishes, avocado crema, and Whole Food’s frozen fish fillets.

Broccoli rice with five spice quick pickled cucumbers, furikake, Sriracha aioli, and smoked salmon.

Best Weekend Ever

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Adam and I had time together on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we had just the best weekend ever! We got super lucky with nice weather which makes all of the difference this time of year.

Friday night we met up with friends for distanced fun in Brooklyn. Dinner and some stand-up comedy. Ample Hills does shows on their rooftop and each $10 ticket comes with a giant cup of ice cream! I got Coffee Toffee and No Sleep ‘Til Pumpkin – coffee ice cream with pumpkin gooey butter cake pieces.

Saturday we took a sixteen mile walk around the Upper West Side and Central Park.

And Sunday we visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Food highlights from the week include…

Rainbow cookie iced latte with edible glitter and pink whipped cream(!!!) from Crave.

Pumpkin things. PSLs from La Colombe and Nitro Beverage Co.

Orwashers sourdough bagel with hand-cut smoked salmon and herbed cream cheese.

Breakfast tacos. With sliced turkey, scrambled eggs, smoked cheddar, and red and green hot sauce.

We tried Laderach chocolate for the first time and now we are smitten.

Snacks from H-Mart. Oreo bubble tea candy and durian chocolates. Plus seaweed and salted egg potato chips.

A two chip chocolate chip cookie from Levain (newest best cookie ever) and a Campfire Cappuccino from Orwashers (with toasted marshmallow and hickory smoke, newest best marshmallow coffee ever).

Dinner at Tradisyon. I had Kare Kare – stewed oxtail and brisket in peanut sauce with eggplant, green beans, and bok choy and shrimp paste.

Plus we got delicious popsicles. Soy milk with mochi and brown sugar and calamansi cheesecake with meringue.

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Pumpkin Month, Taco Week

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Important things first – as of Thursday we have entered Pumpkin Month!

I am very excited about some of those beers. This year’s haul was more restrained than years past because I have accepted that I don’t actually eat cereal so I didn’t buy eight varieties of pumpkin spice cereal to sit and grow stale while they waited for Adam.

Highlights from this week included lots of fall flavors…

Like cinnamon vanilla cold brew.

And freeze-dried apple slices and dark chocolate covered cherries (plus birthday cake bunny grahams).

And all the salted caramel ice creams.

I also had some Perfect snacks.

And this next-level tasty Eleven Lives & Still Wandering double IPA.

I spent two solid hours in the kitchen last Sunday prepping meal components and it was worth it because we had a super easy and delicious taco week! Sautéed onion and red, orange, and yellow bell peppers with roasted zucchini // cauliflower and walnut vegan taco meat // crockpot shredded chicken thighs // homemade salsa (loosely inspired by this recipe). Tacos with veggies, salsa, cauliflower meat, and shredded cheese.

Giant protein bowls with veggies, shredded cheese, cauliflower meat, chicken, salsa, and a fried egg. Plus a cheese quesadilla.

Chicken chilaquiles (made with homeamde tortilla chips!).

Sips And Sweets

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Last weekend the husband and I were both off Friday night through Monday morning and it was amazing! It was the most time in a row together we’ve had in months! We made the absolute most of it cuddling with the dog, taking multiple trips into Brooklyn, and catching up on the last season of Agents of Shield.

Our favorite activity of the weekend was definitely the afternoon we spent in Industry City enjoying the art.

We ate a million exciting treats, highlights of which include…

A freddo cappuccino from Oasis Cafe. Also an unphotographed Oreo caramel mousse!

Phin-brewed coffee with draft chocolate milk.

Love, Nelly – a newish Colombian bakery in Bushwick – is our new favorite spot. Every single design choice is perfect.

Among other things, we had a coffee with condensed milk and crushed ice,

and a shaved ice with passion fruit and almond syrups and passion fruit meringues.

A fresh soursop milkshake from a Vietnamese spot in Flushing.

Bars have to sell you a food item with your drinks to serve outdoors here and Adam’s favorite German spot has added a cup of marshmallows and gummi bears to its menu!

Dinosaur-themed beers, Three Floyd’s LazerSnake IPA and Toppling Goliath’s King Sue IPA with mango, orange, and pineapple.

The world’s most exciting maple key lime margarita is made with sparkly, glitter-infused maple syrup.

Drinks at Diamond Reef. Their outdoor space is great and they served me the best frozen pina colada of my life! Also chips and guac, blistered shishitos, and a pretty great guava rum punch.

Stuffed

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Highlights from this week include – truly epic snacks, a mid-week date night with the husband, and homemade dinners featuring fantastic sausages that I found at Whole Foods. I had a weekend comp day and a holiday comp day and was off Monday-Tuesday, which was just lovely!

Best bites…

Date night at Evil Twin!

Our favorite beer was that one that looks like a smoothie – Even More Hydra, a sour ale with blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, marshmallow, and cacao nibs.

The fudge ripple in this 7-11 ice cream is my favorite thing I’ve eaten all year.

Highly recommend these Trader Joe’s crunchy honeycrisp for Apple Month.

Cola-flavored beer.

All of the sushi take-out. Spicy crab, spicy salmon, Philadelphia roll, and crispy rice with spicy tuna.

Reuben pizza from Whole Foods.

Brussel sprouts roasted with duck fennel sausage, blue cheese, and yellow raisins.

Whole-wheat spaghetti with roasted cauliflower, lamb sausage, yellow raisins, sunflower seeds, green olive, and jalopeno.

Black Cherry, Black Bean

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My work situation this past week/weekend was crazy, over-the-top busy so I don’t have a ton to share from the past seven days because I mostly ate weird snacks and sad take-out. I am actually off Monday and Tuesday this week and I could not be more excited for my “weekend.”

Here were five things I ate and loved…

{1} Top Apple Month success so far has been these caramel apple mellowcremes. They are as delicious as they are adorable!

{2} Still obsessed with Dr. Brown’s black cherry soda. I don’t know how I let this stuff fall off my radar the past few years, it’s fantastic!

{3} Also obsessed with these Trader Joe’s turkey corndogs. They are the perfect balance of sweet and savory.

{4} These buffalo blue bean burgers remain the best recipe I’ve ever created. Paired with homemade coleslaw with yellow raisins and sesame seeds. I roasted the cabbage which was a total upgrade.

{5} Before our busy weekend Adam and I managed to get into Brooklyn for a date on Friday – take-out from Donna Cocktail while watching the sunset in Domino Park! I had a frozen margarita and the best taco I’ve ever eaten. P.S. Then we went to second dinner at Meckelberg’s and split three sandwiches!

Apple/Spice Month

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We were trying to eat through some of our stores before I went grocery shopping this weekend so the past week we ate a lot of random foods from the back of the freezer and take-out. Somehow it worked out that everything was delicious! Highlights include…

First things first, it is Apple/Spice Month! Yes, I am already feverishly shopping for pumpkin beers too.

Peanut butter and jelly crispy waffle from Costa Nova + an iced latte.

Leftover olives from our dinner at Glasserie.

Local Cava Guava IPA which was basically beer champagne.

Adam and I are both 10/10, head over heels obsessed with these Swedish Swedish fish. We bought every flavor we could get our hands on at the store the other day.

We also lost it for these Ben & Jerry’s cinnamon bun cookie dough bites. We had their original cookie dough flavor when it first came out and were underwhelmed but these were outstanding.

Trader Joe’s Asian stir-fry veggies topped with scrambled eggs.

Boca Burgers with beautiful roasted purple potato and roasted broccoli with chili spice.

Chipotle nachos! Tortilla chips with cheese, chicken, roasted peppers, corn salsa, and guacamole.

Homemade okonomiyaki. Topped with Kewpie, Sriracha, and furikake.

Buffalo chicken pizza is good, but leftover buffalo chicken pizza topped with honey and Korean chili flake is even better.